Some thoughts on how to organize a conference that creates value:
CB Insights’ Conference Rant
How to Run a Tech Conference
How to Keep the People Attending Your Conference Alive
And some thoughtful resources on how to organize and [...continue reading]

If you’re talking with cofounders about launching a new business, you’re fundamentally recruiting someone to take the job of partnering with you for the next decade. I see a lot of founders who do less due diligence than I think ideal before making [...continue reading]

Public K-12 education is, on the average, abysmal. Higher education is becoming hugely expensive without a corresponding improvement in services. While the best US universities continue to dominate international rankings, the rest of our education [...continue reading]

“CEO is the new Analyst.”
My former Partner John Frankel of ff Venture Capital observes that 20 years ago, the defining movie of the generation was “Wall Street”. Everyone wanted to work in finance. But now, the defining movie of today’s [...continue reading]

Who should you hire: the superstar with great skills who feels like a poor fit with the culture, or the person with weaker skills but who fits in culturally? Even though I believe in hiring the stranger, cultural fit really matters.
I once had an [...continue reading]

My wife and I have a lot of conversations about work-life balance, or as I usually think of it, making sure I don’t use up too many “spouse points”. Many early-stage companies do not have these issues top of mind, because so many founders are [...continue reading]

I’ve noticed a lot of founders raising capital prefer to have face to face meetings, as opposed to answering questions in writing. Some don't want to share a deck in advance of a meeting.
When you’re fundraising, I suggest keep in mind you are [...continue reading]

I’m looking for a search engine for foreign language movies available via streaming.
We tightly limit our kids’ viewing of videos/TV/movies, except for any content in the foreign languages they speak (Hebrew and Russian; they unfortunately are not [...continue reading]

One of the most common ways a venture capitalist rejects you is a variation of, “I love you, I love your company. I brought it up to the investment committee (“IC”)....but they turned it down.” What does that actually mean? Is this the business [...continue reading]

“Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht” (“Man Plans, and God Laughs.”)
We hope for the best, but are forced to plan for the worst. Almost all VCs will have companies that fail. The CEO comes to us. She has 3 months of cash left. Existing investors [...continue reading]

I presented last month to the Harvard in Tech Emerging Founders Program on "Startup Fundraising Hacks: Raise More Money Faster". I have embedded the video and the slide deck below.
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Over the past decade, I’ve (somewhat accidentally) put together on this blog a syllabus on how to launch, manage, and invest a VC fund. Most of my research is also relevant to private equity. I thought it would be helpful to compile my past articles [...continue reading]

I’m researching an idea for how large enterprises which are not technology companies can promote innovation in their areas of interest. My proposal: hire a true Enterprise Entrepreneur in Residence, whose defined KPI is: Quit my job. (No, that’s not [...continue reading]